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Beware the White Mask
The Roots of Yggdrasil During the Wandenreich's initial invasion of Hueco Mundo... "Marcus, hurry up!!" Within the ruined fortress of Las Noches, particularly the dilapidated remains of Szayelaporro Granz's laboratory, several Wandenreich soldiers were scurrying about frantically, desperately trying to salvage as many oddities or trinkets as they could from the deceased Octava's workplace. One such soldier, a young woman in her early twenties with short red hair wearing the standard Wandenreich Soldat uniform, had her intention directed towards another Soldat, who, unlike the rest of his comrades, appeared to be taking his sweet time. "C'mon Sofia, you can't rush these sorts of things." The young, black-haired man responded, very carefully looking over a small set of what appeared to be test vials full of a strange violet-colored liquid. "You know the Espada in charge of this place was a freaking mad man, right? If we act careless, some of this stuff could blow up in our faces." "Pfft." Sofia responded, crossing her arms. "Please, there's nothing in here worth salvaging. We already know everything we need to know about the Espada, those that are left anyways..." ...boom... A light shaking sensation rippled throughout the fortress, causing the two soldiers and their several dozen comrades to briefly divert their attention away from their looting and look around their surroundings, though none of them appeared to be particularly distressed about it. "Must've been the boys outside." Sofia observed, turning her attention back to Marcus. "Do you think we should-" ...BOOM!! This time, another psuedo-earthquake shook the fortress, causing Marcus to drop the vials he once insisted on treating carefully. Before either of them could react further, another Soldat came running from the entrance to the laboratory, his expression one of exhaustion and desperation. "We're under attack! We need everyone to form up at the-ARGH!!" Just before he could finish giving his order, a white blade impaled the soldier from behind, cleanly and seamlessly cutting through his chest as if he were wet paper. Sofia and Marcus were initially too taken aback to respond, the latter now standing up on his feet next to his female companion. "We should get out of here..." He said quietly, reaching for his Quincy cross. "And then what?" Sofia replied as the two of them started backing away from the entrance. The remaining soldiers quickly formed their weapons and started to converge towards their fallen ally. "It's not like His Majesty will let us off with a slap on the wrist or anything like-oof!" Before she could finish, she back into a pedestal that was almost her height, causing a strange black orb that was situated on it's top to roll off and land on Sofia's head. Instinctively, she caught the orb in her hands and started to gaze at it curiously. "What is this?" She said, her eyes now fixated on this strange black orb. Despite it's small size, the orb felt like it weighed several pounds in her hands, a strange cloud sort of formation constantly moving within it. Whatever the thing was, it had to be important, for they could both feel an immense power dwelling within it. "So much for there being nothing of value here..." Marcus commented. They both had spent so much time looking at the orb, that neither of them noticed that the entrance to the laboratory had now become a bloodbath. The blade that stabbed through the first soldier belonged to what looked like a white knight, wearing plated armor on his chest, shoulders and legs, a white helmet that covered all of his head, and a black robe around his waist that stretched down to his ankles. He carried a fairly long, solid white spear, which he was now using to decimate the remaining Quincy soldiers. This being, who was unmistakably an Arrancar, was followed by three other knights who were visually identical to himself, but each carried a different weapon. One carried a white longsword that required both hands to wield, another carried a small kite shield and a flail, and the final knight wielded a large halberd. All four of these knights, from what Marcus could discern, were as strong as a Gotei 13 Captain, and because of this, the four were able to make quick work of the platoon of Soldat. Thinking quickly, Marcus closed Sofia's hands around the orb and looked her dead in the eyes. "Sofia, run. Get as far away from here as possible, and tell HQ that we need the Sternritter here now!" Sofia wanted to object, knowing that Marcus was going to give his life in order for her to escape and live to fight another day, but she couldn't. This orb... it could not fall into the wrong hands, she just knew that it couldn't. She nodded, placing her hand on his shoulder as a hopeful wish for good luck, and ran towards the opposite direction of the entrance. Marcus inhaled deeply, before turning to face the knights, who had just finished executing the last of the Soldats. The spear knight looked up and noticed Marcus, before ruthlessly yanking his spear out of a Soldat's chest and making his way towards the lone Quincy. Marcus then formed his Spirit Weapon; a fairly large crossbow, and fired a single Heilig Pfeil at the approaching knight. Using his spear, the knight effortlessly deflected the arrow, causing it to harmlessly slam into the side of a nearby wall, before bringing his spear back around to strike Marcus. Instinctively, Marcus held up his crossbow to defend from the strike, and the spear effortlessly cut through the Spirit Weapon, shattering it into harmless Reishi particles. Before Marcus could react further, the knight spun around and delivered a brutal roundhouse kick to the Quincy's jaw. Blood and teeth were ejected from Marcus' mouth as his entire body twisted around, slamming against the pedestal that the orb once rested upon. He cursed himself inwardly for not preparing his Blut-Vene, but before he could even attempt to plan any further action, the knight ran his spear through the Quincy's stomach and into the pedestal, pinning him helplessly. Sofia had made some good distance, but she was stopped by the chilling sound of Marcus's screams of agony. She turned around to look back in his direction, unsure if she should continue or try to go back and help her friend. She looked back down at the orb and clenched it tightly, knowing that she had to get it back to the Wandenreich, even if it meant abandoning her comrade. "I'm sorry... Marcus." She said as tears started to well up in her eyes, before resuming her retreat. Just as she did, however, she noticed that someone was now standing in her way. It was a petite Arrancar woman with short black hair and a skull covering the right side of her face, wearing a long, sickly green robe and wielding what looked like a pocket knife. "Forgive me..." The timid Arrancar muttered, holding up the knife towards Sofia. "...but my master, Szayelaporro Granz, has forbidden any intruders from leaving his laboratory alive..." Sofia scoffed, knowing that this Arrancar was far too weak to pose any real threat to her. "Get out of my way." She said, walking quickly past her would-be attacker. The Arrancar swiftly turned around and slashed Sofia across the cheek, drawing a slight amount of blood and causing the Quincy woman to wince, before turning around to furiously confront the Arrancar. "Now you're dead!" She yelled, quickly and aggressively moving towards the Arrancar, whose previously blank expression became one of fear as she held up the knife defensively. Sofia easily swatted the knife aside before swinging a vicious right hook towards her newfound foe, striking the left side of her cheek and causing her entire upper body to twist in the direction of the swing, blood launching from her mouth and onto the floor. Not content to stop there, the Quincy woman brought her left fist around and struck the right side of the Arrancar's face with equal force, forming severe cracks along the remnants of her Hollow mask and nearly knocking her off of her feet. Sofia knew that at this point she could continue retreating, having easily dispatched her "opponent", but now the anger and adrenaline had reached a point where the sheer sight of Hollows disgusted her. This lowly Arrancar had tried to stop her from carrying out Marcus's last wish, and risked putting all of her comrade's sacrifices in vain. The anger she felt for this woman was too much for her to bear, and now she just wanted to kill her. With a loud snarl, Sofia charged the Arrancar, who was still reeling from the previous two blows, before wrapping her arms around the Arrancar's waist and plowing her into a wall behind her. The Arrancar tried to stand back up fully, coughing up blood and saliva, before Sofia slammed her knee into her nose. Now bleeding from both her nose and mouth, the Arrancar helplessly looked up at her attacker, opening her mouth as if to plead for her life, but Sofia was having none of it. Grabbing the Arrancar's hair and pulling her back up to her feet by force, the Quincy began to viciously beat the defenseless Hollow, striking her in the face, chest, stomach, groin, anywhere that she could to inflict as much pain as possible. The Arrancar, bloodied and bruised all over and now teetering on the brink of death, fell to her hands and knees, struggling to keep herself up. Sofia then kicked the Arrancar in the stomach, forcing her onto her back before kneeling down and straddling herself on the Arrancar's hips. "This is what you get, you bitch!!" Sofia said, before grabbing a nearby rock, of which was nearly as big as her own head, and holding it over her head in preparation to finish the Arrancar, who was now laying helplessly on the ground panting and groaning in pain, occasionally coughing up spurts of blood. Just as Sofia raised the rock as high as she could, however, the flail-wielding Arrancar knight appeared, wrapping the chain of his flail around Sofia's wrists and throwing her back towards his comrades, the rock now falling harmlessly next to the beaten Arrancar woman. Sofia now realized that she had been caught, having spent far too much time torturing her previous opponent and thus allowing the knights to appear and apprehend her. Landing on her stomach, she desperately tried to get back on her feet and continue her retreat, but just as she tried, the halberd-wielding knight slammed his axe into her left ankle, severing her foot from her leg. "AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!" She screamed in pain, before the longsword-wielding knight grabbed her by the hair and held her up off of the ground effortlessly. "Where is the orb, human?!" He yelled in a loud, masked voice, slamming the pommel of his sword into her stomach with enough force to nearly knock her out. Even if she wanted to reply, she found it incredibly hard to speak, as both the pain of her severed foot and her hair being pulled were far too distracting. She inwardly cursed herself for letting herself get distracted by the petite Arrancar, who in hindsight posed no real threat to anyone. The flail-wielding knight then slammed the spiked ball of his weapon into Sofia's lower back, nearly shattering her spine and causing her to cry out in even more agony. Tears poured down her face like a waterfall, and blood dripped from her mouth and nose. "Answer the question, retch!" He yelled out to her. "Now now..." Before the knights could inflict any more harm to the Quincy, they all turned their attention back to the Laboratory entrance. An Arrancar wearing white and black robes, a black shoulder cape over his left shoulder, a white mask that covered the entirety of his head, and long black hair emerged from the entrance. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, gentlemen..." The entity spoke calmly with an eerily resonant voice and tone, approaching the group calmly while casually stepping past all of the bodies. The knight released his hold on Sofia, carelessly dropping her on the floor before he and his comrades turned and bowed to their apparent master. "We believe this human has the Yggdrasil, Master Selestino." The longsword knight spoke. "Does she now?" The one now known as Selestino responded, standing over the weeping Quincy calmly. His left hand was resting atop his sheathed Zanpakutō on his left hip, casually moving it around as he continued speaking. "Well then, let's negotiate." He said, crouching down and resting both of his arms on his laps. The halberd-wielding knight grabbed Sofia by the hair and held her head up to where she was now looking directly at the masked gaze of their master. "Oh, but where are my manners? I am Cervantes Selestino, an entrepreneur of sorts. And you are?" Sofia's face was one of disgust and pain, but again, she could not find the strength to speak. "Gurk..." She coughed, attempting to say "Screw you" but coughing up blood instead. "Ah, a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Gurk." Cervantes responded politely, the sarcasm in his tone abundantly apparent. "Now, the Yggdrasil. I'm led to believe that it's within your possession, correct? It should look like a small black orb of sorts and I believe it was in this laboratory just moments ago prior to my arrival. Why don't you name your price, and everyone here will walk away with something?" "N-Never..." The Quincy, now able to speak but just barely, uttered. This earned a chuckle from Cervantes. "See? Progress. So you do have it. I understand that you must be under strict orders to keep the orb, but I'm sure we can come to an agreement. One thing you must always keep in mind when conducting business is that no amount of conviction can stave off one's deepest and most primal wants and desires. Name anything that you want, and I will make it yours." "Master, we have found it!" Sofia's blood ran cold upon hearing those words. The spear-wielding knight walked up from behind her, holding the Yggdrasil within his hand and presenting it to Cervantes respectfully. She realized now the folly of her previous outburst; her vicious assault on the Arrancar woman had caused her to unintentionally drop the orb. Cervantes stood back up fully and calmly took the orb from his servant, looking at it with adoration, having finally found what he had been searching for. His attention then turned back towards Sofia, aiming his right index finger at her head. "Well, that's unfortunate for you, soldier." He said as indigo-colored energy began to build up at the tip of his finger. "It would appear that negotiations have been concluded." "Wait!!" Before he could execute the defenseless Quincy, the voice of Marcus interrupted him, causing the Arrancar to turn his attention towards the male Quincy. Marcus had managed to stand back on his feet, grasping the bleeding hole in his stomach as he addressed the Arrancar and his servants. "We... we will not be slain... not by the likes of Hollow-scum like you...!" "Oh?" Cervantes responded, now focused on Marcus. "I find that difficult to believe, as you two have done a rather fine job of getting slapped around by my knights. But then again..." He looked back towards the petite Arrancar woman, who was still lying lifelessly on the ground. "...you are quite adept at assaulting those who can barely defend themselves. Why don't I grant you a taste of that?" Clenching the orb tightly in his left hand, his body began to bristle with a bright pink aura, before he held out his right hand towards Marcus. "Amor." He spoke, causing a sun-shaped marking to appear on Marcus's forehead. "Wh-What... is this...?" The Quincy stuttered, finding himself unable to control his body as he stumbled towards Sofia in an almost drunken manner. Cervantes and his knights backed away, moving towards the fallen Arrancar woman as Marcus flipped Sofia onto her backside and straddled himself upon her hips. The woman was still dazed and exhausted, but recognized the person sitting on top of her as her friend. "M...Marcus...?" She mumbled, noticing that Marcus was raising his fist up as if he were preparing to strike her. "...what are you..." Just before she could finish, Marcus slammed his fist into her face, causing her to yell out in pain. "I can't... I can't control this!!" Marcus screamed out helplessly as he continued to assault his female companion. "Please, stop!!!" He screamed as he continued to unintentionally pummel Sofia, each strike causing her to let out a cry of pain and confusion from the defenseless woman. "Stop?" Cervantes commented, his right hand still barely held up in a clear sign that he was directly influencing the man's actions. "You did say that neither of you would die by the hands of lowly things such as Hollows. So the only things here left to kill you both are..." He paused for dramatic effect as Marcus landed the finishing blow, his right fist slamming into Sofia's right jaw with enough force to break it, causing her mouth to dangle from the rest of her face, dead. "...yourselves." The sun-shaped tattoo slowly faded from Marcus's forehead as he grasped both sides of his head and screamed in both terror and anger, unable to avert his eyes from the corpse of his friend, whom he had just murdered by his own hands. He would not be allowed to mourn her for long, however, as the same sun-shaped tattoo appeared on the forehead of Sofia's corpse. Slowly, the deceased woman sat up to face Marcus directly, her eyes drained of color, her face bloodied and bruised, and her jaw hanging just barely from her face, making her look truly like a zombie. Marcus could not react in time, horrified and unnerved by the site of the woman who was alive just moments ago, as the corpse grabbed a nearby rock and struck the man in his left temple, knocking him off of her and onto his back. The corpse, now under Cervantes' control, then crawled on top of the barely conscious Marcus before grasping his neck with both of her hands. He struggled, trying to pry them loose, but the corpse of Sofia now had no pain threshold, and her grip was so strong it was practically inhuman. Now being strangled to death by his deceased comrade, Marcus could only struggle and cry helplessly as she choked the life out of him. After a few seconds, his hands fell helplessly to his sides, and he breathed his last breath. As both Quincy were now dead, Cervantes released his hold over Sofia's corpse, the sun-shaped tattoo fading from her forehead, and her body falling lifelessly onto the corpse of Marcus. "Hmph." Cervantes huffed, lowering his right arm and observing the disturbing sight. Such pitiful creatures these Quincy were, and it brought him all worlds of satisfaction to watch them suffer in such a horrid manner. "Master, over here." One of the knights stated, causing Cervantes to turn his attention to his subject in question. It was the longsword-wielding knight, standing over the female Arrancar that Sofia had nearly killed earlier. Her desperate panting had now gradually eased into a gentle breathing, but it was clear that she was in very bad condition. "This whelp tried to stop the female human and was defeated." The knight said, grasping his sword with both hands and pointing it down at the woman's face. Her eyes wearily cracked open to look up at the sword, before gently closing, as if to accept her fate. "Pathetic. You will now repent for your failure." The knight declared, before rearing the sword up in preparation to finish her. "Let's not be so hasty." Cervantes said, grabbing the knight's right arm and stopping him from continuing, his attention focused on the woman. "I find that pain is a very poor method in dealing with failure." He continued, releasing his hold on the knight's arm before kneeling down next to the woman. "What is your name?" He asked calmly. "R...Ro..." The woman attempted to answer, but struggled greatly due to the extent of her injuries. Holding out the orb, Cervantes' body now radiated with a deep green-colored aura, before putting his hand on the woman's shoulder. Gradually, her wounds began to heal themselves, her cuts and bruises fading away, and her previously broken bones now repairing themselves. She gasped, now able to breath normally, and sat herself up panting heavily. "Easy, easy..." Cervantes calmed the woman down, his hand remaining on her shoulder. "You are one of the many Arrancar who are incapable of healing themselves, as am I. However, this orb contains the power of previously deceased Espada, and using the power of Ulquiorra Schiffer, I was able to apply his regeneration ability onto you, but only briefly." As she looked back towards him, her expression became more calm, and her breathing steadily returned to normal. "Now, your name?" He asked again. "I am... Roka. Roka Paramia." The woman meekly replied, unable to look Cervantes directly. "...Thank you." "Roka Paramia, what a beautiful name." Cervantes replied before standing up fully, extending a hand out to help Roka up to her feet. "What was one so delicate as you doing down here, and more importantly, why did you throw yourself against an opponent you had no hope of beating?" "I..." Roka hesitated to respond, her right hand holding her left arm nervously. "I... was under orders by my master... to kill anyone who intruded into his laboratory... even if he were to die." Cervantes chuckled, holding the orb up for her to see. "There is nothing to be gained by serving a dead master, especially one who treats a fiercely loyal subject like you with such contempt and abuse." He then held out his other, free hand towards her. "Come, and serve me as my right hand. You can do infinitely more good under my command than you ever could under one such as Szayelaporro." The woman blushed, now completely unable to look at the man who had saved her life out of shame. "You speak too highly of me... I am just a nurse, barely fit to hold a weapon. I do not belong among your prestigious ranks..." She said. "Remarkable things are often born from unremarkable places." Cervantes responded, his hand still extended towards her. "Join me, and together, we will perform wonders together, the likes of which this barren wasteland we call home could never dream of." She had to admit, he had a natural charisma and charm about him, despite his face being completely concealed behind his Hollow Mask remnants. His voice was smooth and convincing, and she inwardly had always desired to leave Los Noches or Hueco Mundo in general to see the rest of the world with her own eyes. With a gentle smile, she reached out and grasped his hand, which he held tightly but carefully. Together along with the four knights, they began their departure from the laboratory, carelessly stepping around and on top of the various Quincy corpses that littered the floor around them. Continuing to hold Roka's hand, Cervantes' actual attention was focused more on the orb, the Yggdrasil that had caused all of this, which he held in his other hand. "With this..." He thought inwardly. "This world's future is all but guaranteed..." END